Alain Grisay, chief executive of F&C, has warned that the asset manager
could “go under” if activist investor Ed Bramson takes control of the
company’s board next week.

Just nine days before the shareholder vote, Mr Grisay launched a scathing attack on Sherborne, the investor headed by Mr Bramson. Mr Grisay said Mr Bramson posed a danger to F&C and demanded to know whether he was planning to launch a rights issue.

“I don’t want to see us go under water - without first raising the red flag and warning shareholders to look more carefully,” said Mr Grisay.

“We have a duty of care - beyond our shareholders - to the money we manage, to the savers and the pensioners. This is not an industrial company - it is not a factory. If an asset manager goes under the destruction is to the savings of hundreds of millions of people. Who is going to pay them back?”

Mr Grisay’s comments came as F&C demanded answers from Mr Bramson about his strategy and his rumoured plans to tap investors up for capital if he wins next Thursday’s vote.

“Because of his actions the company could be hit with huge instability,” said Mr Grisay. “Fund managers could walk away. Look what happened to Gartmore, New Star and BFK in the US, which melted down completely within a year,” he said.

Sherborne owns 17.6pc of F&C and earlier this month criticised the board for allowing the shares to slip while spending excessive amounts on acquisitions. Mr Bramson is pushing to elect three new F&C directors - including himself as chairman.

F&C said such a move would damage its own three-year turnaround project, which it claimed was now beginning to bear fruit, having seen £3.7bn of net inflows in 2010. That took assets under management to £106bn.

“That is not personal, it is totally objective. Sherborne has no track record whatsoever with a asset management business - in fact Sherborne has no track record with any regulated financial services business anywhere in the world.

“If he has a better plan than we do, he should articulate it. And if shareholders voted for it I would have no problem - that’s shareholder democracy.

“But saying ‘just trust me, vote for me on a song and a prayer’ is not good enough. It is incredibly dangerous.

“His track record is mixed and in some cases is an outright disaster. It is totally unfair that he has asked people to judge him on his performance and then hidden that he has had problems elsewhere.”

However, sources close to Sherborne insisted that despite Mr Bramson seeing one investment go into Chapter 11 insolvency and the shares of another nosedive recently, he had created $400m of profits for his investors over the past 35 years.

Next week’s battle for control for F&C will be fought out among F&C’s top-20 shareholders. Sherborne is the largest, and the second- and third-biggest have already declared for either side, leaving the remaining 17 speaking for around 41pc of the company.